Facebook Fridays: Changing Gears...Again.

Let's get down to business.

I passed up my first opportunity to do a Facebook Friday post because last week I was too busy taking my wife to see Wicked.  Then the following Saturday, I did my first performance painting as part of a dance recital.  So it was a pretty busy weekend.  This weekend will be just as eventful (we've got Glennda's mom for the weekend), but there are some teenagers having a pool party right outside our bedroom, so I can't sleep anyway.  It's 1 in the morning, by the way.

What's in a name?

I find myself occasionally checking the App Store for new apps I can download for free and then hardly ever use.  I found an app called "Robot Unicorn Attack."  While not free, I was still tempted to buy it purely on the basis of its ridiculous title.  This made me start noticing...okay, looking for...crazy titles everywhere - especially Netflix.  With titles like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies (which is actually the one and only film to officially fall into the horror-musical genre), who actually needs to watch these movies?  Scrolling through the titles is entertainment enough.

The painter behind the curtain.

So, that show I did really jump-started my painting.  I've done a lot of new work, but am hesitant to post them up online.  I want to sell them, and the hush-hush nature of the whole thing adds an element of value - like each piece is a well-kept secret that only a select few are allowed in on.  Plus, I don't want to be one of those approval-hungry artists who constantly needs people to tell them how remarkable their work is.  I know how good I am, and how good I'm not.  The ultimate compliment would be to tell me how much you'd pay for one of my paintings, and then to buy it.  So if you're interested in buying, let me know and I'll show you what I've been up to.  Some of them are actually pretty freaking cool.

As a man's wife thinketh...

My wife believes in me.  She read one of my recent posts and said I should be a 'real' writer.  I joined a group of freelance writers who submit articles and then get paid based on how many people actually read them.  We'll see how that goes.  I've also taken every single post since the beginning of this blog and put 'em in a Word document.  I've gotten myself an official ISBN that I will use to publish it as a book and put up on websites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble for people to purchase.  I shall call it A Fool's Gold: One Man's Ignorance is Another Man's Bliss.  So that's that.  But then tonight, once I'd finished painting my first portrait (which turned out alright - the first painting I've been happy with since the cherry blossoms), she suggested that I become a tattoo artist.

Wait a sec, hold up.  What the heck of it?

You have to be an apprentice for at least a year before you get your first paying customer.  Plus, tattoo parlors are rarely in the best part of town, and your income is based on the frequency of your business, which means it's fluid and never steady.  This is not something into which most wives-of-two-years will generally suggest that their husbands invest their time and energy.  Usually it's more along the lines of moving up some sort of corporate ladder and creating a stable financial situation upon which to build a home and a family.  I mean, don't get me wrong - being that there are about 15 more tattoos I plan on getting over the next couple decades, I just about freaked when she actually suggested that I look into it.  But I guess I just never pictured her being supportive of that kind of job choice.

Although, there are a lot of people I could spread the gospel to in that field.  And, if I were to work in a tattoo parlor, I'd be able to get my dreads and labret piercing (and of course, tattoos) without my employer complaining about lack of the appearance of professionalism.

It really is crazy, the things I'll consider doing when my wife says she believes in me.  Her opinion outweighs the rest of the world to me - if she says she thinks I can do it, that's all it takes to me to believe in myself as well.  She just said it in passing, and probably had no idea that it completely rearranged my view of our future.  I guess we'll see how it all plays out.

Well, I think this Facebook Fridays deal might work.  Let's see what this coming week has to offer.

-R.